


You Matter to Me

by kstrumpets



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BOM Keith, Blades of Marmora, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Season 4 Spoilers, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Male Character, Transphobia, also referenced but not explicitly stated autistic keith and adhd lance, and so is lotor but he isn't actually in this, but not too bad, they're both trans, trans mlm author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 06:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kstrumpets/pseuds/kstrumpets
Summary: News had gotten out that the reason Lotor was shunned by his parents wasn't because he was half-Galra or an attitude, but instead because he was transgender. Or, as the other Blades kept muttering, "a girl trying to be a prince". Keith, who was trans, was pissed.orsomething that started out as a ventfic ended up something else entirely





	You Matter to Me

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was supposed to start out as a ventfic because I saw a post that pissed me off b/c it was cisnormative af. It ended up more, but I'm not complaining. I've been wanting to write Klance ft. some things that happen in this anyway.

Keith paced in his room, seething with anger. Admittedly, he was mostly channeling his anxiety into what was easier to cope with, but he was still mad.

News had gotten out that the reason Lotor was shunned by his parents wasn't because he was half-Galra or an attitude, but instead because he was transgender. Or, as the other Blades kept muttering, "a girl trying to be a prince". That wasn't the worst comment, though -- _I always knew all half-Galra are girls._ That's what made Keith snap and return to the Castle of Lions. He kept the blade and suit since they're both useful, but he declared that he was leaving and not helping with any more missions.

He didn't explain why he was so angry. He had to get out of there before he hurt somebody. He didn't greet anyone when he got back, and he ignored any comments. He had to get some space.

Keith sighed loudly and stabbed his Marmora knife into his bed's headboard. He left it there and tore off the armor and collapsed onto his bed face-down. He'd missed that room more than he thought. He went over the comments the other Blades made in his head, and he lifted his head when he realized that his sheets were wet with his tears.

"Shit. I didn't want to cry."

He jumped when he heard a tap at the door.

"Keith, are you okay? You fled to your room without saying anything!" Damn, the last person he wanted to see.

"Go away, Lance." His voice cracked, and he flinched at how pitiful he sounded.

Lance didn't say anything else, so Keith thought that he went away. He sighed again and flipped onto his back and dragged his still-gloved hands down his face.

When he took his hands off, he nearly fell off the bed when he saw Lance's face right in front of him.

"WHFUCK! LANCE?!" Keith scrambled to regain his composure. "What are you doing in my room? I told you to go away."

Instead of answering, Lance glanced over Keith's face with a worried expression. "Are you crying?"

Keith tensed up and steeled his face. "No. Now go away."

Infuriating as always, Lance ignored his comment and instead 'tsk'ed at Keith. "That was a rhetorical question. I can see that you are. Dude, what happened? You left the Blades of Marmora so suddenly and when you came back you gave all of us the cold shoulder. Talk to me, Keith."

He rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't understand anyway. The Blades are just full of assholes."

"Keith. Buddy. _Mi amigo_. I don't care if I don't understand. I want to help you out."

Keith stared incredulously. "Since when do you care?" Was this a prank? Did someone put Lance up to it? Did he find out that Keith was—

"Dude, you're my friend. If I didn't value you, I wouldn't have came to _you_ about me wanting to let you have Red back and me stepping out of the way. I wouldn't have shown you a vulnerable side of me." Lance dragged his hands through his hair. "I care because you're important to m–– the team."

Okay, he didn't expect that. He swore Lance almost said 'me'. He felt the tips of his ears heat up, but he ignored it. "Oh." Keith cleared his throat. "Um. Thanks." He started to feel awkward. "Er, sit down. I'll talk to you."

So, Keith started to explain the situation. The outing of Lotor, the comments the Blades made. He couldn't read the expression on Lance's face, but that wasn't something entirely new. His eyes wandered as he spoke, and he gripped his sheets to stop himself from fidgeting with his hands out of nerves.

After saying the comments that made Keith leave, Lance's eyebrows flew up. "Seriously? Transphobic assholes. I swear, if I see them, I'm gonna punch 'em."

Keith's eyes snapped to Lance's in surprise. "You care that much?"

"Yeah I do! How dare they say that, even if about an ass like Lotor. We aren't girls." Keith's eyebrows flew up. "Shit, they. I mean— ah, forget it. Okay, fine. I have some personal issues with their comments because I'm trans." Lance sighed and shrugged.

Well. "Wait, what? You are, too?"

"Too?"

"You can't just come out like that and expect me to keep quiet about it too!" Keith was glancing over Lance's face rapidly.

"Oh." Lance seemed to think for a tick. " _Oh._ " Another tick. "Wait, I've been comparing myself to you for so long and it turns out you aren't cis either? That dumb rivalry I had against you was because I thought you were cis!"

Keith let out a confused laugh. "Seriously? I thought you were just jealous of my flying skills."

"Well... That too. And— never mind."

He didn't buy it. "And what?"

Lance looked away and started bouncing his knee. "Nothing."

"Lance."

"Fine. Andcauseyou'rehotandIhadacrushonyou," Lance muttered quickly.

Keith raised an eyebrow. "What was that?" He couldn't have heard it right, because there was no way he heard 'crush'.

"You're hot, okay? Please don't make me say that again." A blush was evident on Lance's face.

Then again, Keith was blushing too. "Oh. Wait, what? But you're straight!" Lance started laughing, and Keith frowned. "It wasn't a joke. Why are you laughing?"

That seemed to sober him up. "Dude, I'm bi. Or pan. I don't know which. I can't believe you didn't know that!"

"It's hard to think that when you're always flirting with girl aliens."

Lance laughed again, but not quite as hard. "I've flirted with guy aliens too. But my flirting doesn't mean anything, anyway. They're just pretty faces. What's important is a connection."

Okay, Keith was trying not to blush. The look on Lance's face just made him get butterflies in his stomach. "You say that like you have someone in mind. Are you really that into Allura?"

Lance spluttered. "Dude, no! She's more like a sister to me now!"

Keith was confused again. "I guess I haven't met whoever it is then."

"You have, but never mind about that. How far into a transition did you get?" Apparently Lance was eager to change the subject.

"I got top surgery at the Garrison and I was on T for a while, but I was cut off when I got expelled." Despite the question itching in his mind, Keith was okay with the subject change. "What about you?"

"Nothing but a binder and a supportive family. The Garrison wasn't as willing to help a cargo pilot and someone lucky to get into what you got kicked out of." Despite the words, Lance sounded more tired rather than bitter.

"Wait, are you telling me you've been exercising with a binder on? And barely been taking breaks?"

Now Lance looked guilty. "Uh..."

"Lance, you're gonna hurt yourself! Please tell me at least you have a sports bra."

"...I do. In my dorm in the Garrison. I sorta didn't pack for an adventure in space."

Keith sighed and dragged his hand down his face. "If you don't stop that, I'm gonna kick your ass before you bruise your ribs."

"Okay, okay."

After that, a silence spread out, but it was comfortable. Keith had a few questions going through his head, but they weren't burning to get out. Besides, he was content looking at Lance.

The silence was broken when Lance spoke up. "Hey, Keith?"

"Hm?"

"Matt mentioned something that really bothered me and I want to find out if it's true. At Naxzela, did you"—Lance's voice started shaking—"try to save us by crashing your ship?"

Keith swallowed. He didn't really want to face that near-death experience so soon. "I did what I thought was the only choice. I wasn't about to let you...you guys die. I'm expendable. I'm impulsive, reckless, and a danger to the team. I—"

"Woah, woah, woah. I'm gonna have to stop you there. Stop that. If I'm worth being on the team like you said, then you are too. Besides, at least _you_ listen to me." The bitterness at the last part wasn't expected.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. I just had said we needed to leave Naxela and Shiro ignored me. If it weren't for Allura, we'd be dead. But that's not important. Keith, you're a man of action. Yeah, you do sometimes rush into danger without planning, but Voltron isn't a team for nothing. Did you miss what I said earlier about you being important? I meant that."

Shit, Keith felt his eyes watering again. "Thank you, Lance."

"Stop trying to act like death is an option."

"...We're in a war. And the Blades kept telling me that victory or death is the Galra way."

Lance suddenly grabbed Keith's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Dude, the Blades are transphobic assholes, remember? And you're also human. Team Voltron way is 'death isn't an option'."

Keith sighed and glanced away. "It's a possibility though. It's better me than you."

"How am I going to get you to understand that you're important and not expendable? Keith, I can't... I.... If you die, I don't know what I'd do." Lance let go of Keith and stared at the floor.

At that point, Keith was silenced out of shock. He looked over Lance and went over what he just heard over and over again. Finally, he came up with a reply. "I don't know what _I'd_ do if _you_ died. Other than blame myself."

That was what got Lance looking at Keith again. His eyes were red-rimmed, like he was close to crying. Before he knew what was happening, Keith was pulled into a hug. He grunted in surprise, but he let himself smile while he hugged Lance back. When Lance pulled back, Keith couldn't help the tears that formed and spilled over.

"Shit, I'm sorry."

Lance looked confused. "For what?"

"For crying. For trying to sacrifice myself. For leaving the team behind because I figured if I was the one to step out you wouldn't feel as out of place. For not being good with social shit. For—"

"You went to fight with the Blades for my sake?"

Keith paused and realized he did say that. "Yeah, I guess. I felt bad because all I said to you was 'leave the math to Pidge' and that didn't feel good enough. I wanted to say more. You're so important. If being one hell of a sharpshooter doesn't do enough, how about how well you come up with strategies under pressure? How you have a good intuition when you're not distracted by a pretty face and getting chained to a tree?" He smirked at the splutter Lance did at him bringing that back up. "You came out of a coma and shot an arm off. Hell, you shot a blade hurtling at me out of the air, nailed it, and I was safe. I was blown away by how amazing that was. Lance, you're amazing."

Lance being stunned into a silence was something Keith expected. He waited it out. What he _didn't_ see coming was Lance kissing him.

Wait...

_Lance was kissing him?!_ His breath was blown away, but he kissed back happily. His chest felt tight with an emotion he couldn't name, but he liked it. He felt the chapped parts of his lips brushing over the smoothness of Lance's lips, and at this distance he could smell what almost seemed like an ocean breeze coming from Lance. He loved it. He brought his hands up and tangled his fingers in Lance's hair. Lance grunted in response, and Keith felt fingers in his own hair.

When they pulled apart from the close-mouthed kiss, both boys were panting lightly. They didn't need to exchange words — the kiss was enough. Keith felt a smile break across his face, and he didn't care at all. He was really happy, after all.

"Wow." Lance was the first to speak. He was smiling too at that point.

Keith rested his forehead against Lance's and let out a genuine, happy laugh. "You could've done that earlier when you wanted to convince me how much I matter to you."

Lance shrugged. "It seemed more right to hug you. Besides, I kinda did need to hear what you think of me. Thank you."

"I'm just glad that I managed to tell you," Keith admitted. "I guess my time away did some good, because I started noticing things I missed, and a lot of that had to do with you."

They were kissing again. Lance was cupping Keith's face with his hands, and Keith's heart was swelling with the sappiness of it. When it ended, he swore he had anime hearts in his eyes with how much he was affected.

"Y'know, you're the last person I expected to see with a look like that on your face, but I'm not disappointed."

The two sat for a while, looking into each other's eyes, chatting and teasing, kissing more, and enjoying each other's company. At some point, Keith made the mistake of letting Lance find out that he was ticklish, but he quickly found out Lance was as well and soon a tickle war had started.

They had probably been doing all of that for about an hour before they jumped when someone knocked on the door.

"Keith, are you in there?" Shiro.

Keith looked at Lance and saw how swollen his lips were, and he figured he didn't look much better especially since he still felt dried tears on his cheeks. Lance looked a bit unhappy with who interrupted, though, and Keith made a mental note to cover the earlier mentioned problem.

"Yeah, but Lance helped me out. I'm good now." He didn't think he needed to give specifications.

"I'm glad you're doing better. But I came because Kolivan called. He wanted to know why you left so suddenly."

He should've seen that coming, but he worked with it. He felt Lance's hand grab his and give a reassuring squeeze. "Tell him that I realized I'm better off with Voltron. Here I'm accepted, and maybe I did leave because I wanted to find a family. But I already have one here." Keith saw Lace smiling out the corner of his eye and he started smiling too. "Also, the Blades of Marmora are assholes, even if they are on our side."

He almost heard the shrug on the other side of the door. "Okay."

Keith thought Shiro was going to say something about talking later, but that never came. He knew he left, though. That was weird. He mentally shrugged it off and looked back at Lance, who was still smiling. Until he basically tackled Keith to kiss him, anyway.

Keith let out an 'oomf' when his breath was knocked out of him by the motion. He put his hands on Lance's neck and rubbed gently, earning a noise of appreciation. Instead of giving into desires to get more, he broke the kiss and looked at Lance admiringly.

"Y'know, your eyes are really pretty. They're so blue," Keith murmured.

"You're one to talk! Your eyes are violet or purple or something. They're amazing." Keith scoffed. "No, really. Okay, fine, don't believe me. I won't let you convince me that my boring blue eyes are better than your purple ones though."

"Whatever you say, man. You're not gonna convince me that your eyes are boring."

"Let's agree to disagree."

Keith laughed at that and sobered quickly when Lance gave him a bunny kiss. The feeling of another nose on his was different, but it was intimate and he loved it.

Lance flopped down next to Keith and wrapped his arms around him. Keith heard him mumble something about cuddles, and he'd been so touch-deprived over the years that he wasn't about to complain.

Then apparently Lance noticed something. "Why do you have a knife in the headboard?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it this far! This was my first VLD fic (let alone klance), so I'd love some feedback. Personally, I'm a little unhappy with the pacing, but I'm my own worst critic and I might just be thinking it's worse than it is.
> 
> [my vld tumblr is [autistic-paladin](http://autistic-paladin.tumblr.com) if you have any questions, want to give prompts, or just want to say hi!]


End file.
